1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic medicine packing machine capable of packing medicines automatically, and more particularly, to an automatic medicine packing machine with a shutter assembly, in which a shutter provided for improving the packing rate of medicines may be easily detached from a main body of the automatic medicine packing machine, whereby a user may easily perform a maintenance such as a cleaning process of the automatic medicine packing machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an automatic medicine packing machine is supplied with medicines such as tablets, capsules and the like from a plurality of cassette units, in which the medicines classified by their kinds are respectively accommodated, and packs the medicines dose by dose continuously. The automatic medicine packing machine comprises a plurality of cassette units which are arranged in an upper portion of the main body of the automatic medicine packing machine and in which the medicines such as tablets, capsules and the like of which the sizes and shapes are different from each other are accommodated, a hopper disposed in a lower portion of the main body for collecting the medicines discharged and dropped from the cassette units, and a packing unit for packing the medicines collected by the hopper with a packing paper.
In order to improve the processing rate of such a conventional automatic medicine packing machine, it is required to increase a rate of discharging a predetermined number of medicines selected from the respective cassette units and a rate of packing the discharged medicines as soon as possible.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H8-20438 discloses an automatic medicine packing machine having a shutter unit, which is disposed between cassette units arranged in an upper portion of a main body of the automatic medicine packing machine and a hopper arranged in a lower portion of the main body thereof and can temporarily suspend the discharged and dropped medicines, thereby improving the processing rate. Such a conventional shutter unit is configured to be selectively openable/closable by a driving unit such as a motor, and fixedly installed to an upper portion of the hopper.
According to the conventional automatic medicine packing machine as configured above, the shutter unit is provided between the cassette units in the upper portion of the main body and the hopper in the lower portion thereof, thereby causing the packing rate of the medicines to be improved.
Meanwhile, in the automatic medicine packing machine, several tens to several hundreds of medicines are accommodated in the respective cassette units, and the impact applied to the medicines when they are discharged and drop causes fine powders of the medicines to be generated, whereby the fine powders of medicine components different from each other are mixed and accumulated in the hopper or the discharge passage as well as the shutter unit.
Accordingly, since there can be a risk of accident caused by misuse of medicine, e.g., addition of any fine medicine component which is not required to a patient during the packing process of medicines, the user should clean the corresponding portions of the automatic medicine packing machine assuredly and periodically while confirming cleanliness of the respective portions thereof with his/her naked eyes.
However, since the shutter unit mounted to the conventional automatic medicine packing machine is fixed to the upper end of the hopper in order to be stably connected with the driving unit by which the shutter unit can be opened and/or closed as describe above, there is a problem in that it is impossible for a user to clean the shutter and the hopper while confirming the portions to be cleaned with his/her naked eyes.
As a result, there is a need for a shutter unit which can be mounted to the upper end of the hopper and easily detached for the periodic cleaning by the user to improve the packing rate of the medicines.